Paraglider’s Photographs Remind Us How Beautiful Planet Earth Really Is

Combining her love for landscapes and risk taking, photographer Jody Macdonald is able to capture some of the worlds most gorgeous landscapes, from 20,000ft in the air. By paragliding, Jody photographs some of the worlds most beautiful places, with a perspective previously unseen, and the results are stunning.

Traveling across all over the world, Jody has been shooting these beautiful scenes for eight years now. From Nevada to India, and every place in between, Jody captures these images to sell in her gorgeous online gallery. I had a moment to sit down with Jody and speak of her travels photographing some of the worlds greatest landscapes.

Jody got started in her aerial landscape photography through photography first. By going to university, Jody found her love for photography as a creative outlet. “I was always into art classes and being creative since I can remember. I took photography classes in university and I fell in love with it. Photography for me was the perfect medium for expression and I fell in love with being able to catch an amazing moment in time and quickly see the results.” It wasn't until about 10 years ago when Jody also found her love for paragliding and combined the two to create these amazing images.

At this point, Jody finds that these two loves have merged together and she simply cannot take photos without adventure, or experience adventure without photographing it. “Adventure has always been apart of my life. When I fell in love with photography it was just a natural progression to merge my love for adventure and photography together. My fuel, [and] my drive comes from capturing a time and place that shows how amazing this planet is. I feel I can capture images like these through adventure and exploration. Getting way off the beaten path, experiencing rare cultures or paragliding at 17,000ft. No matter what subject I'm photographing my soul just isn't in it unless adventure is apart of it.“

Mozambique, Africa -

Jody writes “I learned to paraglide with my brother in Alaska. We did it on our own, without instruction. Although that's not a method I'd recommend to others. I spent the last eight years sailing around the world and I've had an amazing opportunity to paraglide over some of the world's most stunning landscapes.”

Mozambique, Africa -

Getting those tough shots isn't a walk in the park either. Often, when paragliding a few thousand feet off the ground, you don't have a lot of time to adjust your settings through trial and error. Without a strong knowledge of your equipment, you can find yourself looking at the back of your camera for settings when that perfect shot is passing you by. Jody writes “If you want to get better paragliding images it’s always good to work with other pilots to help you get the shots you need. I brief the pilot/pilots on what type of shot I’m trying to achieve so that they have a good understanding and we are always in radio contact in the air so I can tell them where I want them to fly or what type of maneuver I want them to do depending on the location and light. When you've only got 'one chance', the communication is critical. I wrote an article on my website about photographing from paragliders called The Art of Paragliding Photography. It goes more into depth on the type of setup I use and why.”

Namibia, Africa -

After scouring the world, Jody has been able to experience some of the greatest places to photograph. However after seeing much of Asia, Europe, and North and South America, Jody still finds India to be the most interesting place to visit. “From the Himalayan mountains to the deserts of Rajasthan and everything in between, India has a diversity like no other. Culturally, geographically, spiritually, it all amplifies the senses to the extremes....simply, no place compares. “

Zach Sutton is an award-winning and internationally published commercial and headshot photographer based out of Albuquerque, NM. His work highlights environmental portraiture, blending landscapes and scenes with portrait photography. Zach is also an Editor for Fstoppers and writes for various publications on the topic of photography and retouching.

As an avid Skydiver I can say supplemental O2 is required/strongly advised above 18k ft. I have gone up to those heights without it but I don't think it's advisable. As far as freezing, I've jumped out at 15k in shorts but I can't imagine flying around on a paraglider without a good layer of protection even in the middle of summer...